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Open Access Thesis

Keywords

Junior high schools--Curricula--Iowa; Science--Study and teaching (Secondary)--Iowa; Vocational education--Curricula--Iowa; Junior high schools--Curricula; Science--Study and teaching (Secondary); Vocational education--Curricula; Iowa;

Abstract

The objectives of this study were (1) to reveal the status of career-vocational development practices taking place now in the junior high school science departments of Iowa, (2) to describe the type of career-vocational development experiences being offered to approximately 55% of Iowa pupils in grades 7, 8, and 9, and (3) to identify the amount of emphasis being placed upon career-vocational development education at these grade levels of the science curriculum.

The principal method used was a questionnaire survey. This was carried out by mailing a 74 item questionnaire to 137 junior high principals. Replies totaling 119 were returned (86%). The population sampled represented 53.7% of the total number of students in Iowa public junior high schools.

The significant findings were (1) more career-vocational emphasis is occuring in the science area than any other subject matter area, (2) a rather small number of schools (21%) are following the IOWA HANDBOOK plan of career education provided by the Iowa State Department of Public Instruction, (3) a director of the career-vocational development programs was designated by 40.3% of the schools in the survey, (4) of the schools surveyed 12.6% reported a full-time director for their career-vocational development program, (5) a small amount of money (3.3%) of science budgets are allocated for career-vocational development emphasis within the science classes, (6) providing literature and general testing were the two major career-vocational development functions of the

guidance staff in the schools surveyed, (7) over half (58%) of the schools studied indicated that none of their science instructors were well qualified in career-vocational development education, (8) more science teachers were qualified in the area of agriculture, fishing, forestry, environment, ecology than any other general occupational area, (9) exploratory work-study programs are offered by almost no (6.7%) Iowa junior high schools, (10) over three fourths (78.2%) of the schools provide no job site visits for their science students, (11) only 12.6% of the schools utilize classroom guests from the world of work, (1.2) nearly half (47.1%) of the schools reported career-vocational development emphasis for the handicapped pupils (including special education), (13) more schools reported girls in shop classes (19.3%) than boys in home economics courses (16.8%), (14) science clubs were reported by 48.7% of the schools, (15) group guidance, films, recordings, bulletin boards and displays were reported to be the most successful career-vocational development activities, and (16) vocational agriculture is offered at only 1 grade level (9th) and was reported by 24.4% of the schools.

Year of Submission

1973

Degree Name

Specialist in Education

Department

Department of Educational Leadership and Postsecondary Education

Department

Department of School Administration and Personnel Services

First Advisor

Donald L. Hanson

Comments

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Date Original

1973

Object Description

1 PDF file (143 pages)

Language

en

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